Drawn from my three-year immersion for the film Let the Child Be the Guide, my research, and my Montessori teacher training (AMI), this quote is an excerpt from a thematic selection I compiled to remove the primary obstacle to education: our adult prejudices. This post presents one of the themes from this collection, designed to transform, step by step, our gaze upon the child.
“We must also reject the idea that a child is happy when forced to play […] the child’s pleasure lies in the accomplishment of ‘great things’ (for his age). He is truly satisfied when he has made the maximum effort for the task he has undertaken; happiness lies in an activity of body and mind whose aim is perfection.” — Maria Montessori, cit. in Paula Polk Lillard, Montessori: A Modern Approach